However Martinez made two big changes to the first eleven that was hammered away at the Emirates.
Jordi Gomez and Jason Koumas were dropped and in came Jason Scotland up top and Paul Scharner in the middle of the park.
It was an inspired change by the Latics boss. For as talented as Gomez and Koumas may be, they offer little in terms of defensive quality and that has not been counteracted by their attacking displays, of which they have offered little.
Instead, Martinez chose to give the chance to Jason Scotland up front who's power and general hold up play caused big problems to the Chelsea defence.
Paul Scharner was also employed in an unfamiliar attacking midfield role, a position that he reveled in, producing a fine display. In particular, Scharner offered a definitive link between the back four and attack, and caused Chelsea some real problems with his aerial prowess.
Notable was the fact that the rest of the starting eleven was largely unchanged, both in terms of position, and also the level of performance in recent weeks.
What a difference two players can make?
The Latics started on the front foot with probing attacking play. Although this left them open at the back, it was refreshing to see the blue and white shirts flooding forward at every oportunity, rather than awaiting the inevitable Chelsea goal.
It was also a good bit of inspiration from Charles N'Zogbia, who's swift turn and cross from a short corner found Titus Bramble to head home.
A familiar story amongst the home crowd who were now expecting the Latics to crawl back into their shell and fight off any equaliser, only to sucumb at the death.
However Bob's men did no such thing and continued to press forward and get at the heart of Chelsea. Mo Diame and Hendry Thomas were running the midfield and providing a valuable front shield in front of a settled back four.
Whilst Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia were offering a potent attacking threat to support the powerful presence of Jason Scotland up front. Scotland will have won over many of his doubters with his performance today.
The half time whilstle could not come soon enough for Carlo Ancelotti who needed to get his players on task again and fully focussed. It was therefore no suprise to see Chelsea come out with a fire in their stride early in the second period.
So much so, it took only ninety seconds for Drogba to net the equaliser with a goal that sneaked through Kirkland's legs as he diverted Malouda's cross following Melchiot's poor defence clearance.
The character then shown by the Latics was refreshing to see. So far this season their has been no spine to the team and they have really just crumbled when under any form of pressure. To come back at Chelsea following their early second half equaliser was very pleasing to see.
Scotland brought down a long ball forward before feeding Rodallega on the left wing, he came inside, shaped to shoot, before passing inside to Charles N'Zogbia who swifted stepped in front of Ashley Cole before playing a delightful reverse ball inside the full back to the onrushing Rodallega who had continued his overlap.
The Columbian striker then proceeded to keep his head and side step the onrushing Cech who caught Rodallega's trailing leg. Penalty and a red card for the Chelsea goalkeeper.
The major turning point: Phil Dowd dismisses Petr Cech and awards Wigan a penalty
It was the major turning point of the game and credit must be given to the referee Phil Dowd who could have easily bottled the decision, but instead gave what he saw. Rodallega dutifully despatched the penalty and the Latics didn't look back.
Chelsea were a spent force and now looked lost and thoroughly shocked. A late injury to Ashley Cole reduced Ancelotti's men to nine (they had used all their substitutes) and Paul Scharner added to icing on to the cake as he tapped in Maynor Figueroa's cross-cum-shot at the back post.
All the pressure on Martinez has now seemingly eased. The memeories of the bad performances and Blackpool and Arsenal are fading. The home defeat to Wolves now cancelled out by earing three points over Chelsea.
But perhaps most importantly, Martinez has found his best eleven. Therre is no room for Koumas and Gomez at the level unless they are prepared to defend and work hard for team, as both Scharner and Scotland offered a greater dimension to the team.
The air around the DW Stadium has suddenly lifted from doom and gloom to the early season optimism experienced after the opening day victory over Aston Villa.
Now is the time to enjoy our first victory over the big four in thrity five attempts before what is a very important game next week away to Hull City.
Here is the reaction of the two managers.
Roberto Martinez
When you are Wigan and playing against the top four you have options - you can be brave and beat them or you can get hammered.
That is what happened. We were beaten 4-0 and 5-0 (by Arsenal and Manchester United) and today the only reason we won is because we learned our lessons.
We have been brave from the first moment and no-one can say we did not deserve the win. That is a big compliment to our club.
This is for the fans, who have been with us through the bad times and supported us all well. The great thing from my point of view was our reaction to conceding a goal. We continued to be positive.
It's a key moment for our history. The fans deserve this moment, they push us and they support us throughout.
I think the understanding and the concentration levels were fantastic. It's not that we had one or two key moments in the game - I felt that from the first minute we showed a great determination to win the game and we fully deserved that.
There are reasons why we won and we have to make sure we understand them and carry on using them. We were getting into great positions time after time in the last third.
Many times we had one-on-one situations and two-on-two situations and that's very hard to find against a very good Chelsea side. But all in all I would say the key moment was that when Chelsea scored our concentration levels never changed.
In the past we have had problems with our belief in carrying on doing exactly the same when we go a goal behind or we had a disappointment. I think that was key in our performance.
Carlo Ancelotti
We need to react well to this defeat and sometimes when you lose there is new motivation.
We did not play a good game - it was a bad performance. I do not know why we did not play well.
But these things can happen after a lot of victories. We have to accept this loss and fix things for our next match.
Wigan played better than us. They were well organised and played good football. I was surprised. This was the right result.
We played well in the first 10 minutes but when we lost the first goal it became more difficult.
We started the second half better, then there was the penalty. I do not want to comment on it. I know Cech was unhappy but that is normal in that situation.
Next game
Next up for the Latics is a trip to second bottom side Hull City. The Tigers have not started the season too well and the trip to the KC Stadium could see Bob's men really push on.
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